CHANCHIKI
Minyo, is Japanese local folk music, songs which were naturally born from people's everyday lives that have been handed down through the generations. They convey various emotions and represent regional characteristics.
In the form of working songs for rice planting or fishing, celebrating marriages or festivals, to dance or play, for banquets, the lyrics include each regional folk custom and dialect, and the songs have developed with various aspects of ancient life. Tsugaru-Shamisen and Okinawan music derived from these regional characteristics as well. Minyo is mainly sung to shamisen (3 stringed lute) and fue ( Japanese flute ) while shakuhachi ( Japanese vertical bamboo flute ), kokyu ( Oriental fiddle ), and wadaiko ( Japanese drum ) occasionally join in.
Until the 1960s, minyo was popular among people of all ages and had an influence on Japanese popular music, and many new songs were composed.
But with the change of time, because of the concentration of the population in large cities and the penetration of western lifestyle and culture including music, lyrical content and the sound of minyo became estranged from everyday life. Nowadays except in Okinawa and a few places, minyo is performed only at local and traditional festivals, so the master-and-pupil system is the main way to maintain the skill of singing and playing in the old form.
Chanchiki operate in the world of Minyo, and are one of a few artists making a new departure in the music to restore the balance between tradition and creation.
Featuring traditional singing and playing with Japanese instruments, they have updated the rhythm by adding a variety of percussion and electric bass, incorporating rock, jazz, funk, boogie, Caribbean, Latin and African music.
At the same time they have visited places where minyo songs were born, exchanged ideas with local musicians, and conducted field research. They are always conscious to show respect for the origin of minyo in composition. Their blend of minyo is therefore is based on the accomplishment of each musical element, with standard and classic minyo songs given a contemporary and pulsating groove rooted in tradition.
The band derives its name Chanchiki, from a kind of metal-ashtray-shaped percussion with sticks which is also called 'Atarigane'. Nowadays it's used for local entertainment Chindon music, and the lively music used to accompany rakugo
Tsutom Tanaka, responsible for composition, arrangement, wadaiko and shamisen, started his music career as a drummer in his teens with an amateur band which played American R&B music. At the age of 19, he first encountered Tsugaru-Shamisen. After he studied under the master Shuichiro Takahashi, he began his career as shamisen player. Shortly after he found his root in minyo, then found the best minyo players and musicians from rock and jazz to form Chanchiki in 1998.
The singer Makiko Ikeda learned Minyo singing and dancing an early age and has won many minyo-singing competitions. The shamisen player Hajime Nishi studied under the master of Tsugaru Shamisen, Chisato Yamada. Hajime is a unique shamisen player performing overseas as well as Japan. He's also a member of the shamisen rock band Musashi. Shakuhachi player Koushi Tsukuda, whose father is also a professional player of the same instrument, has been performing since his teens, and is the skillful player supporting many minyo musicians and touring around the world. Bass player Tacoji plays many different styles of music such as jazz, funk, rock and so on, and has unique phrasing which helps to create the sound of Chanchiki. On some songs, musicians from the avant-garde jazz big band "Shibusa-Shirazu" support the band in the percussion and horn section.
The band has released 2 CDs on an independent label, Douraku in 2000, and Gokuraku(meaning "Paradise" or "Heaven") in 2004. On Gokouraku they played mainly minyo songs which remain only in local festivals, and also picked up Japanese popular songs that survived with minyo in the same age. With fresh ideas and innovative arrangement it demonstrated an impressive development and maturity.
Besides recording, they've given theme songs to big festivals like Yosakoi Soran Matsuri. Those are the new Japanese festivals, where dancing teams compete .They performed as a main act, getting the audience into a collective dance, enabling minyo to get back to its original inherent energy. They also have taken part in educational programs given workshops at various school events.
Their ultimate aim is the reinstatement of minyo in the field of music and culture to the mainstream in Japan.
GOKURAKU
- Rasshoi!! (original: Yagi-bushi) (traditional)
- Yaga "F" (traditional)
- Funakogi-nagashi-uta (traditional)
- Minato-no-uta (original: Akita-minato-no-uta) (traditional)
- Ayagu (original: Ayagu-bushi) (traditional)
- Buzah? Nisai? (original: Buzahtohra) (traditional)
- Gondola-no-uta (lyrics: Isamu Yoshii, music: Shinpei Nakayama)
- Ukikusa Bushi (music: Tsutom Tanaka)
- Hounen-mansaku Bon-odori (original:Nishimonai-bon-odori-uta) (traditional)
- Chug Chug (original: Chagu-chagu Umakko) (lyrics: Kinjirou Ono, music: Naoyoshi Ozawa)
- Kodaijin (traditional)
- Konpira FuneFune (traditional)
- Arigataya Bushi (lyrics: Kuranosuke Hamaguchi, music: Kazuya Mori)
All songs arranged by Tsutom Tanaka, except 4&10 by Tsutom Tanaka & Hajime Nishi, 7 by Chanchiki & Daisuke Takaoka, 8&9 by Chanchiki
Exective producer : Tsutom Tanaka
Sound producer : Chanchiki
Tsutom Tanaka : wadaiko-drums, shamisen, electric guitar, percussion, vocals and chorus
Makiko Ikeda : vocals
Tacoji : electric bass and chorus
Hajime Nishi : shamisen, acoustic guitar and chorus
Koushi Tsukuda : fue(Japanese flute), shakuhati(Japanese vertical bamboo flute) and chorus
Mari Sekine from Shibusa-Shirazu : percussion
Daisuke Takaoka from Shibusa-Shirazu : tuba
Akira Kitoh from Tokyo Chu-tei-iki : baritone sax
Tomoyuki Mihara from Brass Bros : trombone
